The Roads We Take
by Vacurai78
Summary: PLOT CHANGE! After Roxas defeated Xion, we all know he went to fight Riku. But what happened after that? POV third person, first person for my...surprise character.  I suck at summaries! Please read!
1. Roxas

_The Roads We Take_

**Vacurai: We all know about Roxas's heroic end. But we don't what exactly happened to him, and today I am here to tell you that the roads we take only lead to us.**

_There have always been the three of us,_

_The last of the three who hang on,_

_But nature won't allow us to stay long together;_

_The connection is broke but not gone._

_The roads that we take lead us on separate paths_

_And we may not yet meet for a while,_

_But once again when we meet,_

_On the usual, broad street,_

_We will shake hands, then smile, and hug, and go on._

"Good-bye, Roxas. It was nice meeting you…Oh…and of course…Axel. You're both my best friends."

"Never forget…that's the truth."

The blond boy grabbed her falling hand out of the air.

"No! Xion…Who else will I have ice cream with?"

The young girl's body dissolved into light and mingled with the floating crystal shards. Roxas looked down and saw a single seashell where his friend had lain, and he picked it up and bent his head. "Xion…"

He couldn't stop crying.

The girl who he had liked so much…she was gone. Roxas slowly stood up. Xemnas would pay for this…they would all pay.

* * *

><p>Roxas shoved the envelope into the mailbox. There went his lucky WINNER stick. Axel needed it more than him, anyways. He had more important things to do, like setting Kingdom Hearts free.<p>

He really needed his friends. They…completed him, and they made him feel like he was a Somebody.

Roxas couldn't live without that feeling.

"Hey, kid! Why are you out this late?" Roxas ignored the boy wearing the hoody and the two lackeys by his side and kept walking. "This is our turf, so you better get out! Here, I'll teach ya!" Seifer charged, but Roxas drew his Keyblade and pointed it at the bully.

"Just…keep away. I'll be out of your hair soon."

Seifer's attitude softened a bit as he stopped running. "Oh. Well, go on." Even he could see the sadness the Nobody was feeling.

The rough-muscled lackey frowned. "You better go, ya know?"

The girl lowered her head. "Bye."

"Alright. See ya." Roxas opened a dark corridor from the Sandlot to the place where he had fought Xion. The sky was as light as usual, but the Keyblade wielder's mood was at its worst.

_Oh, why did I have to go and leave? Everything would have been fine if Xion and I hadn't left our little group._

"Hey there, Roxas!" Pence, Hayner, and Olette walked out of the station and up to the saddened boy. "What's wrong?"

"I…lost someone."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry."

Hayner put his hand on Roxas's shoulder. "Hey, things get better. You'll keep on trucking without them, okay? And if you don't, we're here for ya. Got it?" The blond boy looked up and smiled sadly.

"I got it memorized." Roxas straightened up and nodded. "I'll be back soon. I've got to go take care of something." In and out another corridor, this time to a rooftop near the floating castle so he could think about what he had to do.

_Why? Why did I have to know how to use the Keyblade? It's just not fair!_ He summoned the blade and threw it into the abyss far below, but it just rematerialized in his hand and disappeared again. _Rrgh…why? I didn't want this burden. It's brought nothing but bad luck._ He placed his head on his knees. _I wonder how Sora lived with it…_

"Hey." Axel sat down next to him, staring out at the darkness.

Roxas did a double take. "Axel!" The boy hugged his friend for a moment, then backed off.

"Yeah. I got your special ice-cream stick."

"That fast? I only sent it a few minutes ago…" Roxas was silent. The two sat there for a while, just sitting there among their own thoughts.

Roxas:

_Should I tell him? About what happened to Xion? It'd break his heart. But he has a right to know. He was her friend, too._

Axel:

_Why did I join the Organization? It's just a bunch of people together with no feelings and no hearts. But…Roxas and Xion make me feel like I do have a heart. _

Then the blond-haired boy turned to the red –haired one. "Xion's…dead."

"Yeah, I know." Another moment of eternal silence. "Well…what do you want to do, Roxas? Are you going to come back with me? Xion would want us to be together. We could still try and complete Kingdom Hearts. Maybe there's a way to bring her back."

Roxas shook his head. "I promised Xion that I'd release all the hearts we'd captured. I can't let Xemnas have his way. We weren't meant to be complete. We're Nobody's. There's a reason why we're called that."

Axel frowned. "I know, but…I can't let you release those hearts. What happened to being complete? About having a heart? That's what we've been fighting for! Haven't you got it memorized yet?"

"Xion completed us, and now she's gone."

Suddenly the red head was crestfallen. He returned to resting his head on his knees, and he looked up into the sky. The two stayed there, motionless, for what would be described as eternity, until Roxas stood up. "Well…Axel, if you aren't going to stop me I've got to keep the promise that I made to…her."

"Yeah. I've gotta go too. RTC and all that. You know, maybe you are right. What was the use of collecting those hearts if we'll never get one?"

Axel sank into a dark corridor and Roxas jumped down, pulling up his hood. _I have to make them pay, for taking her away from us. And for making me use the Keyblade._ He stopped walking for a moment and frowned behind his coat.

_I am me. Nobody else._

* * *

><p>"<em>Me and Axel…and her…can go back and keep on eating ice cream."<em>

* * *

><p>"<em>Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?"<em>

"_Shut up!"_

* * *

><p>"<em>Why don't you quit?"<em>

"_Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that."_

"_Get real! Look which one of us is winning."_

"_So it's true. You are his Nobody. DiZ was right."_

"_What are you talking about? I am me! Nobody else!"_

* * *

><p>Riku-Ansem pulled up his hood as man wearing a cloak and red bandages around his head stepped out of a dark corridor.<p>

"DiZ," says Riku, "he could feel Sora."

The man frowned. "Oh, he told you how he felt, did he? Ridiculous. A Nobody cannot feel anything."

Riku-Ansem looks down at Roxas passed out on the ground. "If he had met Sora, things might have been different."

"Come along. We must get him to Twilight Town."

The silver-haired man lifted the blond up and followed 'DiZ' back through the portal, and he set Roxas down in the Computer Lab under the beam of light coming from the transporter. "Well, what are we going to do with Roxas? The Organization's numbers might be getting smaller, but they're still hunting after us and are bound to succeed one day."

DiZ sat down at the computer. "I have already thought of that. I created an alternate Twilight Town made out of data and placed it inside Sora's memories. We can place Roxas there until Sora is ready to awake."

The beam flashes once, and data circles whirl around the Keyblade wielder until he disappears. "But what if he remembers us and tries to escape?"

DiZ turns to Riku. "I will have to store his memories deep away in his heart and replace them with artificial ones. That way, he will have friends to keep him company."

Riku leans against the wall. "Why don't we put him on summer vacation?"

"Hmm?"

"I overhead Roxas and Axel talking about it once, and Sora's Nobody took a real interest in it. Why don't we let him have a little fun for his last few days?"

"Hmm."

* * *

><p>A boy wearing a white and black outfit turned a corner and ran into the alley. "Maybe…today we'll finally hit the beach!" The blond boy dashed into the open gate, closing the red fabric behind him and his past with it.<p>

_Only seven days to go,_

_and then my summer vacation's over._

* * *

><p><strong>Vacurai: The next chapter is going to be about Axel trying to see Roxas again, and the one after that will be about Xion.<strong>

**Roxas: I miss her.**

**Vacurai: Yeah, I bet you do, Roxas. I bet you do.**


	2. Axel

_The Days Long Gone_

**Vacurai: A bond of friendship cannot last forever.**

**Lilith: But a bond of flame shall stand.**

_And here I stand, behind, forgotten,_

_The last one on the road._

_I can't turn back,_

_I can't just stop,_

_I can't go forward alone._

"Roxas! To the mansion!"

Axel heard DiZ calling out, even though he was frozen. When the blond-boy disappeared around the corner, the fire-wielder could move again, but he didn't go after him. He merely hung his head and frowned sadly.

"The Roxas I know is long gone."

He opened a dark corridor to the room after the lab and waited in subspace for Roxas to walk in. There was nothing he could do now, since his friend was already too far gone. He'd have to destroy him. What they had before was…how would you put it, special? Unique? Ridiculous? Axel couldn't tell. All he knew was that it wasn't normal.

He and Roxas were the only ones in the Organization who actually felt emotion. Or did they? It was difficult to figure out. Whatever was going on, the blond-haired boy reminded him of someone else. Someone he'd met quite a while back…

The door to the entrance room opened and Roxas walked inside. With a snap of Axel's fingers, Assassins and Dusks fluttered out of the ground as the Keyblade wielder summoned his weapon. He charged forward, slicing at them and destroying each one by one. _Why? There's no reason for me to fight Roxas…but he's not Roxas anymore. He's on his way to become Sora, and I can't let that happen. I want to feel like I have a heart again!_

Once the blond boy had destroyed the monsters, Axel stepped out of subspace in a full temper. He always needed it to work up major flames. "Simply amazing, Roxas."

"Axel."

"Oh, so _now_ you remember me?" He stopped and spun around. "I'm so FLATTERED!" He flourished his chakrams and concentrated on a circular wall of fire and an ember floor, making them appear. Axel grinned. There was no way that his friend could win.

But apparently that boy had as many tricks up his sleeve as his predecessor did. He drew a silvery Keyblade in his left hand and a dark one in his right, and Axel growled. "Two?" Nevermind, Axel had two chakrams anyway. He could fend off attacks and retaliate at the same time.

Roxas charged. The warriors parried each-other's attacks, running along the side of the fire wall, until the blond boy knocked the flame diviner down. In a flash of light the two were standing up again, still parrying and dueling. Axel fired a bolt of fire and Roxas retaliated by smacking him across the room, Roxas threw his weapons and Axel set fire to the floor again, Axel jumped into the fire wall and reappeared somewhere else, throwing his chakrams across the room. (I know, I embellished this fight a bit, but it would be boring if I just said "Axel attacked Roxas, Roxas attacked Axel" over and over again.)

Axel was getting exhausted. He'd sparred with Roxas before, but now the amnesiac Nobody was stronger, and that was before they'd…before they'd…wait, hy was there a gap in Axel's memory? The red head supposed he felt like Roxas did on his first day.

Heh. Today would have been Roxas' 365th Day, not that the flame diviner had been keeping track.

"Rrrragh!" Axel and Roxas clashed, faces inches away. "Why are you doing this?" asked the Keyblade wielder, but Axel remained silent. They separated again and kept on dueling, hacking and slicing and dodging. Axel couldn't say why he was doing this. He had orders to destroy the blond Nobody, but he was pulling his punches right now because he didn't really want to hurt Roxas. They'd stuck together for almost a whole year and Axel couldn't bring himself to destroy the only non-person left who he liked.

With a determined but compassionate look plastered across his face, Roxas dashed through the red head, knocking him down. The wall of flame slowly dissipated and Axel sank to his knees. He knew when he was beaten.

The blond boy started to walk off, but Axel spoke up. This was another chance to use his famous trick. "See you in the next life?" Roxas nodded, and the red head smirked. "At least you…have one…" Then he pretended to dissipate, but instead teleported back to Castle Oblivion. He would live to fight again.

* * *

><p>"Yaagh!" Axel picked up a white flowerpot and threw it across the room, smashing it against the wall. "I'm such a fool! I'll never see Roxas again!" He paused, panting heavily. That fight had really tested his limits.<p>

"Good for you. You're finally starting to understand." A blue-haired man in a black coat appeared out of a dark corridor.

"Saix, get out." Axel tried to compose himself, but it didn't work.

"No, I think I'll stay here for the moment." He glanced disapprovingly at the wreckage of the flowerpot. "Why did you choose to lose that battle? Xemnas ordered you to destroy him. He's of no use now…and since you have failed us also, traitor, you are of no use either. I will be going after Roxas once I dispose of you, so make this quick, and accept your fate." He flourished his weapon.

Axel sighed, his back to Saix. Some unnamed emotion racked his body and he said quietly "No sympathy, huh? Just…accept it? What happened to the old days, Isa? What happened to…Ven…what happened to…" Axel couldn't finish the sentence. He realized, just now, what he felt wasn't exhaustion. It wasn't fake sadness, or regret, or jealousy, or anger, or fear.

Axel didn't want to die.

Somehow, impossibly, the scarred Nobody noticed this. It softened him quite a bit, to the point that he tossed the flame diviner a potion and decided that this would be a fair fight. "Lea...I…what you said about the past…"

Axel drained the potion and materialized his chakrams. "Let's get this over with. I'm not holding anything against you, got it memorized?" He flipped away to the far end of the hallway. "Hope you're ready."

As the duo fought, they both went over the past in their heads. Axel remembered how Xemnas brought him and Isa into Organization XIII and started gathering more members by the minute…well, figuratively. Some of the "possibles" he had them scout had disappeared before he could decide whether or not they were the cream of the crop.

Isa thought about how he and Lea had slowly grown apart. It was over some dumb thing, like whether or not sea-salt ice cream was delicious or not, but regardless it created a rift. Saix moved up in the ranks while Axel stayed right where he was, and thanks to the influence of Xemnas, II, III, and Xaldin **(can't remember his number)**, Isa became a rock solid warrior with no concern for others.

Axel dodged and set fire to Saix's coat, trying to distract him, but it didn't ignite. This battle sure was taking a long time. In mid-air, Isa stopped, listening. "What? But you..." He frowned. "Axel. We will have to postpone this fight for now."

"Why?" Lea lowered his weapons.

"Sora has returned to the world of the living, so Xemnas has called an emergency meeting. I must return immediately, regardless if I have finished my assigned duties." He dropped into a dark corridor, leaving Axel alone.

Again.

"Well…that was fun." Axel closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. He couldn't stay here, because everyone would be after him then. The best thing to do would probably hide in subspace, but that was extremely boring, and Axel wanted to see the sights. Get to know people, do things he never got to do before. Might as well go out with a bang. Something Roxas might have done…oh, Roxas.

The one Nobody exception.

Axel knew what he was going to do now.

He would bring Roxas back.

* * *

><p><strong>Vacurai: Sorry that was kinda short, but I've only got a few minutes. Here's an AUTHOR NOTE EXTRA, The complete <strong>_**The Roads We Take**_** poem, as a consolation prize.**

_**There have always been the three of us,**_

_**The last of the three who hang on,**_

_**But nature won't allow us to stay long together;**_

_**The connection is broke but not gone.**_

_**The roads that we take lead us on separate paths**_

_**And we may not yet meet for a while,**_

_**But once again when we meet,**_

_**On the usual, broad street,**_

_**We will shake hands, then smile, and hug, and go on.**_

_**But here I stand, behind, forgotten,**_

_**The last one on the road.**_

_**I can't turn back,**_

_**I can't just stop,**_

_**I can't go forward alone.**_

_**And someday when I am remembered,**_

_**By people gone far away,**_

_**I will not be forgotten ever again;**_

_**I will finally be here to stay.**_

_**Yet now I travel, walking silent**_

_**On this non-existent ground,**_

_**Worshiping the darkness by plodding into it,**_

_**Hearing nothing but the beating of no sound.**_

_**And even though we are separate, we still stand together, **_

_**Our hearts side by side, they run.**_

_**If the roads we all take lead us on separate paths,**_

_**Together, they turn back**_

_**Into one.**_

**The read head continues typing: "The poem ends there, but the story doesn't. This fan-fic may even encompass people other than Axel, Roxas, and Xion, I may have a surprise or two, it might cross over into KH re: Venture [the new version of it, but more than likely not], and SOMEONE will definitely…hold on a sec." Vacurai sees a shadow on the wall and jumps up and spins around, drawing his weapon. "Prepare to disappear, Un-Light! The chips—wait…"**

**A white pony with a horn and a purple mane walks in. "What's going on?" she asks. "I just came in here to say that dinner's ready." She turns on her hoof and walks out again, closing the door with magic. **

**Vacurai blushes. "Uh….yeah. One of the worlds was….Equestria...and I…well, the camera hasn't described it, but I'm kinda…a pony. There! I said it!" It's true, Vacurai was a pony with a long, red mane, a unicorn horn, and a cutie mark on his tan flank that resembled his Keyblade, Full House. "This world is every girl's daydream. Really. Lilith's actually outside enjoying the air and having fun. Thankfully, I had to write down this story, so I don't have to hang around a lot of these…ponies." **

**(Okay, before any of you start laughing at me, I DON'T watch My Little Pony or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I've just been look at some pony ask blogs on tumblr…okay, go ahead and laugh and flame and say whatever. I'm watching the first part of the first episode on You Tube right now, because…this intrigues me. It's not my fault…well, actually it is, but don't forget about the sentimentality in this story.)**


End file.
